In the manufacture of web, normally textile, articles it is standard to have to lay out the articles one at a time on an input table, pass them through a treatment station, and then pick them up off an output table on the other side of the station. For instance in the manufacture of hand towels a worker positions an edge to be stitched along an edge of the input table so that conveyor belts built into this table can move the workpiece through an edge seamer that forms, for instance, a chain-stitch selvedge. Then another worker takes the finished towels off the downstream output table and, if necessary, transports them back upstream so that the opposite edges can be similarly stitched.
Operating such a machine requires a skilled worker. The workpieces must be exactly positioned s that unless the worker is very capable, the machine will have to operate relatively slowly.